Levels of Life

'You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed...' Julian Barnes's new book is about ballooning, photography, love and grief; about putting two things, and two people, together, and about tearing them apart. One of the judges who awarded him the 2011 Man Booker Prize described him as 'an unparalleled magus of the heart'. This book confirms that opinion.

Love and Other Ways of Dying: Essays

In the 17 wide-ranging essays collected for the first time in Love and Other Ways of Dying, he brings his full literary powers to bear, pondering happiness and grief, memory and the redemptive power of human connection. In the remote Ukranian countryside, Paterniti picks apples (and faces mortality) with a real-life giant; in Nanjing, China, he confronts a distraught jumper on a suicide bridge.

Metroland

The adolescent Christopher and his soul mate, Toni, had sneered at the stifling ennui of Metroland, their cosy patch of suburbia on the Metropolitan line. They had longed for Life to begin - meaning Sex and Freedom - to travel and choose their own clothes. Then Chris, at 30, starts to settle comfortably into bourgeois contentment himself. Luckily, Toni is still around to challenge such backsliding.

Talking It Over

Introducing Stuart, Gillian and Oliver. One by one they take their turn to speak straight out to the camera - and give their side of a contemporary love triangle. What begins as a comedy of misunderstanding slowly darkens and deepens into a compelling exploration of the quagmires of the heart.

The Lemon Table

In a collection that is wise, funny, clever and moving, Julian Barnes has created characters whose passions and longings are made all the stronger by the knowledge that, for them, time is almost at an end.

A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters

This is one of the defining novels of English writer Julian Barnes. An entertaining melange of stories starting with a contemporary account of the launch of Noah's Ark takes us into unexpected areas of human foibles, activities, and tendencies.

Love, etc

In Talking It Over, Gillian and Stuart were married until Oliver - witty, feckless Oliver - stole her away. In Love, etc, Julian Barnes revisits Stuart, Gillian, and Oliver, using the same intimate technique of allowing the characters to speak directly to the listener, to whisper their secrets, to argue for their version of the truth… Love, etc is a compelling exploration of contemporary love and its betrayals.

Through the Window

In these 17 essays (and one short story) the 2011 Man Booker Prize winner examines British, French and American writers who have meant most to him, as well as the cross-currents and overlappings of their different cultures. From the deceptiveness of Penelope Fitzgerald to the directness of Hemingway, from Kipling's view of France to the French view of Kipling, from the many translations of Madame Bovary to the fabulations of Ford Madox Ford, from the National Treasure Status of George Orwell to the despair of Michel Houellebecq

My Brilliant Friend: The Neapolitan Novels, Book 1

A modern masterpiece from one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila, who represent the story of a nation and the nature of friendship.

Suspended Sentences: Three Novellas

In this essential trilogy of novellas by the winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature, French author Patrick Modiano reaches back in time, opening the corridors of memory and exploring the mysteries to be encountered there.

The Sense of an Ending

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour, and wit. Maybe Adrian was more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is retired. He’s had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove.

Nothing to Be Frightened Of

Julian Barnes' new book is, among many things, a family memoir, an exchange with his brother (a philosopher), a meditation on morality and the fear of death, a celebration of art, an argument with and about God, and homage to the French writer Jules Renard. Though he warns us that 'this is not my autobiography', the result is a tour of the mind of one of our most brilliant writers.

The Sunken Cathedral: A Novel

Marie and Simone, friends for decades, were once immigrants to the city after they survived World War II in Europe. Now widows living alone in Chelsea, they remain robust, engaged, and adventurous, even as the vistas from their past interrupt their present. Helen is an art historian who takes a painting class with Marie and Simone.

Flaubert's Parrot

Flaubert’s Parrot deals with Flaubert, parrots, bears and railways; with our sense of the past and our sense of abroad; with France and England, life and art, sex and death, George Sand and Louise Colet, aesthetics and redcurrant jam; and with its enigmatic narrator, a retired English doctor, whose life and secrets are slowly revealed.

Pulse

A brilliant, moving, poignant collection of stories, from the author of Cross Channel and The Lemon Table.The stories in Julian Barnes’ long-awaited third collection are attuned to rhythms and currents: of the body, of love and sex, illness and death, connections and conversations. Each character is bent to a pulse, propelled on by success and loss, by new beginnings and endings.

A God in Ruins: A Novel

A God in Ruins tells the dramatic story of the 20th century through Ursula's beloved younger brother, Teddy - would-be poet, heroic pilot, husband, father, and grandfather - as he navigates the perils and progress of a rapidly changing world. After all that Teddy endures in battle, his greatest challenge is living in a future he never expected to have.

The Buried Giant: A Novel

"You've long set your heart against it, Axl, I know. But it's time now to think on it anew. There's a journey we must go on, and no more delay..."The Buried Giant begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years. Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel in nearly a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge, and war.

The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis: Complete Collection

Lydia Davis is one of our most original and influential writers, a storyteller celebrated for her emotional acuity, her formal inventiveness, and her ability to capture the mind in overdrive. She has been called "an American virtuoso of the short story form" ( Salon.com ) and "one of the quiet giants... of American fiction" (Los Angeles Times Book Review ). This volume contains all her stories to date, from the acclaimed "Break It Down" (1986) to the 2007 National Book Award nominee "Varieties of Disturbance".

Coming of age, the impact of class, and familial and romantic love are the prevalent motifs, along with the instinct toward escape and subsequent nostalgia for home. Some of the stories are linked, and some carry O'Brien's distinct sense of the comical. In "A Rose in the Heart of New York", the single-mindedness of love dramatically derails the relationship between a girl and her mother while in "Sister Imelda" and "The Creature", the strong ties between teacher and student and mother and son are ultimately broken.

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

In this third Neapolitan novel, Elena and Lila, the two girls whom were first introduced in My Brilliant Friend, have become women. Lila married at sixteen and has a young son; she has left her husband and the comforts her marriage brought and now works as a common laborer. Elena has left the neighborhood, earned her college degree, and published a successful novel, all of which has opened the doors to a world of learned interlocutors and richly furnished salons.

A Man in Love: My Struggle, Book 2

In the second installment of Karl Ove Knausgaard's monumental six-volume masterpiece, the character Karl Ove Knausgaard moves to Stockholm, where, having left his wife, he leads a solitary existence. He strikes up a deep friendship with another exiled Norwegian, a Nietzschean intellectual and boxing fanatic named Geir. He also tracks down Linda, whom he met at a writers' workshop a few years earlier and who fascinated him deeply.

On the Move: A Life

From its opening minutes on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California, where he struggled with drug addiction, and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, we see how his engagement with patients comes to define his life.

The American Lover

Trapped in a London flat, Beth remembers a transgressive love affair in 1960s Paris. The most famous writer in Russia takes his last breath in a stationmaster’s cottage, miles from Moscow. A father, finally free of his daughter’s demands, embarks on a long swim from his Canadian lakeside retreat. And in the grandest house of all, Danni the Polish housekeeper catches the eye of an enigmatic visitor.Rose Tremain awakens the senses in this diverse collection of short stories.

The Green Road

Spanning 30 years, The Green Road tells the story of Rosaleen, matriarch of the Madigans, a family on the cusp of either coming together or falling irreparably apart. As they grow up, Rosaleen's four children leave the west of Ireland for lives they could have never imagined in Dublin, New York, and Mali, West Africa. In her early old age, their difficult, wonderful mother announces that she's decided to sell the house and divide the proceeds.

My Struggle, Book 3

A family of four - mother, father, and two boys - move to the south coast of Norway, to a new house on a newly developed site. It is the early 1970s and the family's trajectory is upwardly mobile: The future seems limitless.

If you could sum up Levels of Life in three words, what would they be?

Too much ballooning!

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The latter part of this book finally got to the part about love and loss and that was what I purchased it for. I could have done without ballooning and Sarah Bernhart, thank you.

Which character – as performed by Julian Barnes – was your favorite?

Julian himself and his exquisite narration.

Any additional comments?

Mr. Barnes is a brilliant writer and I have read three of his books and will continue to do so in the future. This book was a bit frustrating in the beginning because it just didn't get to the point until the latter half of the book.

The link between the ballooning and living after a death, and the very truthful and thoughtless things people say and do to a bereaved person. Sounds quite a confessional report from the author, and is sometimes painful to hear, but it is absolutely how it feels (bereavement, not ballooning). Made me think carefully about what I would say, and what I would feel most supported by in such circumstances.

What did you like best about this story?

This is not a story but a disguised autobiography.

Have you listened to any of Julian Barnes’s other performances? How does this one compare?

This is more thoughtful and considered, with a great depth of feeling.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The reading made me think very hard about the situation, and was sobered by his courage in reading his own experience.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Paul S. Turner

birmingham ,england

7/20/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"The tropics of grief"

Would you listen to Levels of Life again? Why?

Totally and utterly heartbreaking.His exploration of his own grief of losing his wife of 30 years is detailed and totally honest

What did you like best about this story?

his honesty and total love of his wife

Which scene did you most enjoy?

It hurts as much as it's worth,so in a way one relishes the pain. if it didn't matter,it wouldn't matter

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

i was in flood of tears

Any additional comments?

the most beautiful book i have read in years

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Leya

London, United Kingdom

10/19/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"The heights and depths- exquisite"

So very, very well written! Well crafted in three parts. The first two parts are facinating. The third part is one of the most honest and powerful I have ever read.

A surprising and powerful novel, and I plan to read it again.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Lenka

London, United Kingdom

4/13/13

Overall

"Levels of Life Julian Barnes"

Currently listening to this book on a way to tube station in the morning and I could not ask for a better way to fill this time if I looked for it. The fact that the author covers the books makes it very special. Great plot, era and very technical knowledge. Highly recommend.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Duncan

Oval, United Kingdom

6/3/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Beautifully done"

A meditation on personal grief that is moving, witty and poignant. A wonderful writer sharing deeply.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

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